


Every thread

by Clocketpatch



Category: Dinotopia - James Gurney
Genre: Slice of Life, Utopia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 08:12:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2805662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clocketpatch/pseuds/Clocketpatch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Together, even impossible dreams can become reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every thread

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rosencrantz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosencrantz/gifts).



We are all different and this is good.

 

Diversity opens possibility. Each tribe has its own gifts to apply:

 

Swift-footed ornithomimus run messages and deliver mail. Wise dromaeosaurids work as scholars and scribes. The sturdy ankylosaurs and ceratopsians lend their strength to farmers. Hadrosaurs delight children of all tribes with their music. Mighty sauropods aid with the construction of monuments which will shelter those same children for generations. In the depths of the Rainy Basin, carnivores eat flesh which is no longer needed, and so maintain the ecosystem and the great, intertwined balance of life.

 

SkyBax guard the clouds and dolphins the sea. The frozen peaks of the Forbidden Mountains, too cold for permanent Saurian habitation, provide a refuge for woolly rhinosaurus, aurochs, gomphotheres, and others who require a cooler climate to thrive.

 

And in all places, quick-fingered humans show their willingness to help and to adapt.

 

Snow and sand, jungle and farm, sea and sky, hand and claw. Together we achieve more than any one person could on their own. Together, even impossible dreams can become reality.

 

*

 

"Are you comfortable?" Allea asked her friend, Couscou the _Europasaurus_.

 

Couscou snorted an affirmative through his high nostrils as Allea continued to fuss over the various straps and harnesses criss-crossing his dappled green and indigo skin. While _Europasaurus_ were small by sauropod standards – Couscou was just under five meters long – inviting him up to Allea's treetop home still made for something of a production.

 

The pair had been friends for over eighty years, and not once during that time had Couscou been able to visit Allea in her own dwelling. Sauropods – even small ones – weren't built for climbing, but by the other side of that same evolutionary token, Couscou was too short to poke his head over a balcony railing as was the convention for the larger long-necked residents of Treetown.

 

Today, however, was special. Allea and Couscou shared the same hatchdate, and, in celebration of both their birthdays and their friendship, the residents of Treetown had banded together to give them both a present they would never forget.

 

Couscou stomped one massive foot against the ground and gave a long, meaningful whistle which translated as, "Come on already!"

 

"Okay, I'll meet you there," said Allea, before racing up the spiral staircase which wrapped around the trunk of a thick redwood tree. The staircase ended long before the tree did and in order to reach her home, Allea had to climb a series of rope ladders and walk across several narrow planks. She did so with the grace and practice of someone who had lived eight decades in the treetops, and with a speed which defied her age.

 

When Allea reached the balcony of her home she paused, grinning.

 

Over a dozen of her closest friends were crowded into and around her home. They perched on branches and swings. Everyone was smiling.

 

Far below, Couscou stood patiently in his harness, waiting. Then there was a loud, bass whistle, different from Cousou's higher-pitched call. It was Fastfoot, the elder of a pair of _Argentinosaurus_ sisters who had volunteered their services to make Couscou and Allea's long-held dream a reality. Bigneck, Fastfoot's sister, whistled back, and the pair started to slowly stride away from each other. Loops of rope connected to harnesses on the giant sauropod's backs pulled taught. Pulleys and tackles creaked. Branches groaned. Human spotters on the ground shouted directions.

 

And Couscou – all seven and a half tons of him – rose slowly into the air, twisting slightly in the breeze.

 

"Are you still okay?" Allea shouted. "Nothing's too tight?"

 

"I'm flying!" Couscou whistled back.

 

Allea laughed and clapped, her eyes sparkling with tears. For eight decades she'd visited Couscou in the sauropod barns every day without fail. The warm, mingled scents of mashed oats and fresh cut hay were as much a part of her as her life in the trees, but being able to finally share the entirety of that life with Couscou was overwhelming.

 

Allea's human friends rushed to the edge of the balcony to help with swinging Couscou over onto solid footing. The wood of her balcony groaned under his weight, but Allea wasn't concerned. The entire structure had been rebuilt and specially reinforced for this meeting. Couscou stayed in his harness as a safety precaution, but he was able to step into Allea's home for the first time. He let out a long, blissful note, which translated as:

 

"The way the light falls through the leaves at height is different from the patterns on the forest floor."

 

"I know," said Allea.

 

"Both are beautiful," whistled Couscou, nuzzling his snout against Allea's cheek. "I am so glad to share this beauty with you."

 

Allea grabbed his neck and hugged it close. "And I with you."

 

"Thank you," they both said to their friends, great and small, who had allowed them this small miracle.

 

Then the party started. The feasting, singing, and dancing carried on long into the night. The love shared between the two friends lasted on far longer, transmuting into legend as for generations afterwards parents shared with their children the story of the day a sauropod flew.

 

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
